An oatmeal coffee stout attempt

[Immocles]

Hey folks, I'm looking at whipping up a simple recipe for an oatmeal coffee stout. I recently made a simple stout following the 70/20/10 guidelines, and am somewhat using that as a baseline. I'm hoping that I'm going in the right direction.

Small, one gallon batch

2lb maris otter (71%)
4oz flaked barley (9%)
4oz oats (quaker) (9%)
3oz roasted barley (6.5%)
2oz simpsons light crystal (4.5%)

.5oz EKG at 60
(My other stout, I added another .5oz at 5min, but I figure its a better idea to leave it out for this brew)

I'm hoping that gives me the smooth, creamier texture I'm looking for. I've never used oats before. Planning to mash on the higher end.

With the coffee addition, I'm looking to add to the fermenter for 2-3 days before bottling. Either by adding about an oz of slightly crushed beans, or a shot of cold brew (we always have some on hand). If I go the cold brew route, does anyone out there have any recommendations of the amount?

I have some leftover vanilla bean from a mead earlier this fall. I'm considering using a small piece, but will it extract much (if any) flavor if I add it along with the coffee? Or am I throwing too much at this?

Thanks for any input.

 

[triethylborane]

Grain bill is fine for the style, but what yeast?

I generally add the coffee when the krausen drops and I start ramping temps up for cleanup. Cold brew might not be strong enough for just one shot even with a 1 gallon batch, I use 1oz of coarse ground coffee per gallon.

Ive had a few vanilla coffee stouts and porters, it could be a good addition to your brew.

 

[Immocles]

Oh, thought I listed yeast. I’ll be using us05. Perhaps not traditional or by guideline, but it’s what i have on hand and it worked well on my last stout.

I figured an ounce per gallon was a decent amount, no clue on cold brew quantity though. We have plenty of whole bean coffee in the house should I go that route.

 

[balto charlie]

I have been researching this as well recently. I found a good discussion over at AHA forum, here is the link. I want to brew a chocolate coffee stout.

https://www.homebrewersassociation.org/forum/index.php?topic=26477.msg343550#msg343550

The following is an exert from the discussion. It comes from a brewer named Porterhaus. He also discusses adding chocolate to the stout. Here is the coffee info. Cold brewed coffee is easy to make and prevents the bitterness. I also included a link for that below. It needs to be made the day before you need it.

.......For coffee I like to add cold brewed coffee to the keg, about 1 cup of strong cold brewed coffee. I use a ratio of 1/4 cup ground coffee to 1 cup of water. I make this up in a larger batch so I have extra. I add the coffee to a mesh sac and add this to a pitcher of cold filtered water. Steep in the fridge overnight or so never more than 24 hrs. This coffee flavor is that of what you can expect from an Iced Coffee drink. It's bold, flavorful and has some coffee punch. The nice thing about this method is you can easily adjust how much coffee to add per taste at kegging or bottling. With this method, the coffee character mellows and can fade off but the character is clean and like the chocolate blends with the beer very well........

https://cookieandkate.com/cold-brew-coffee-recipe/

 

[Immocles]

Thanks for the links, good info. We have an unholy amount of coffee options in this house, and I think I will go the cold brew direction this time around. As I said, we always have it on hand, usually brewed weekly. Hopefully I get lucky on the volume the first try, otherwise I can add/subtract in the future. Its only a gallon batch, so I think next time I'll try crushing an oz of whole bean and dry beaning. If the grain bill itself yields a good beer, I don't mind making it several times and tweaking it until I'm satisfied.

 

[sicktght311]

I recently brewed a 3 gallon test batch of a Coffee Milk stout that came out phenomenal. My gravity was way off and i only ended up around 1.080, but i think i overcalculated my efficiency, didnt mash long enough, didnt sparge with enough water, and then didnt boil down enough to overcompensate. Left too much sugar in the mash tun.

10lbs 2 row
1.5lbs Flaked Oats
1lb Crystal 60L
.5lbs Crystal 120L
4oz Roasted Barley
4oz Black Malt
8oz Chocolate Malt
6oz Lactose

Mashed at 152 for 60 minutes

1oz Cascade at 60
1oz Willamette at 15 and then another 1oz at 5

US05 yeast at 68 degrees for 14 days. Fermented VIGOROUSLY and had a ton of blow off.

2oz whole coffee beans added to the fermenter 1 day before cold crash, 3 days cold crash, then kegged

All efficiencies aside, the beer came out phenomenal. I'm brewing this again after the holidays and trying to crack 1.100 gravity so i can get 3 gallons bottled and stored away.

 

[Immocles]

Glad to see someone else using 05. I just mashed in on this recipe. My hopes is that it’s slightly sweeter and creamier and the coffee smooths everything into place. I know it’ll drink in any scenario, but I brew with the seasons and this might be my last chance for a bit given the cold in the basement. Wish I’d remembered to pick up a packet of Nottingham

 

[balto charlie]

If you plan to add coffee in secondary or after fermentation is complete might try this brewer process. This guy recommends 2oz cold press coffee after fermentation complete, he also adds cacao nibs at same time. I have read mixed reviews on the nibs though.
https://www.bertusbrewery.com/2016/04/chocolate-coffee-stout-2-0.html

 

[Dgallo]

I promise you the best way to add coffee is by adding the coffee as whole coffee beans directly to the fermenter. If you like bold coffee notes this is the best. Add a medium roast coffee with the flavor and aroma contributions your looking for. For example if you want to add a nutty/chocolate like coffee to the beer use either Mexican or Guatemalan coffee ( I like blending the two, 60% to 40% Guatemalan to Mexican). Whole beaning will give you all the flavor and aroma but with out any acidity or watering the beer down adding cold brew coffee

 

[Immocles]

I promise you the best way to add coffee is by adding the coffee as whole coffee beans directly to the fermenter. If you like bold coffee notes this is the best. Add a medium roast coffee with the flavor and aroma contributions your looking for. For example if you want to add a nutty/chocolate like coffee to the beer use either Mexican or Guatemalan coffee ( I like blending the two, 60% to 40% Guatemalan to Mexican). Whole beaning will give you all the flavor and aroma but with out any acidity or watering the beer down adding cold brew coffee

Hmmm interesting. I’d have thought it would have been more harsh with the beans. Uncrushed?

 

[Dgallo]

Hmmm interesting. I’d have thought it would have been more harsh with the beans. Uncrushed?

Uncrushed will be less harsh than crushed. I used 7 oz of whole bean coffee as a dryhop in 5 1/2 gallons of beer for 3 days and it was a total coffee bomb, as I was hoping for.

Anytime I used cold brewed coffee I felt like the body of the beer suffered and I got a very bland coffee profile. Crushed or ground coffee seemed to be astringent and grounds made their way into the keg.

 

[Immocles]

Well we’ve got plenty of whole beans of various roast, so it’s just as simple for me. I wish I’d have went with my gut and doubled the recipe and compared both. Debated it while I was milling grains.

 

[Immocles]

Uncrushed will be less harsh than crushed. I used 7 oz of whole bean coffee as a dryhop in 5 1/2 gallons of beer for 3 days and it was a total coffee bomb, as I was hoping for.

Anytime I used cold brewed coffee I felt like the body of the beer suffered and I got a very bland coffee profile. Crushed or ground coffee seemed to be astringent and grounds made their way into the keg.

Well I just added an oz of some locally-ish roasted beans, along with a small sliced vanilla bean piece, to my jug a few minutes ago. Bottling on Friday afternoon so I'll be hoping for the best. If I achieve the coffee flavors that I'm looking for, the next time around I will probably try to find a certain type of coffee to experiment with. There aren't a lot of choices in the stores around here, so I figured I would use one of the local roasts we already had on hand.

 

[sicktght311]

3-4oz whole beans added right to primary has always worked for me. I just add them in a bag weight with marbles suspended from the rim so they’re immersed in the beer. Has worked perfectly for the few times I’ve brewed my coffee cream ale and coffee milk stout. No acidity. Just solid coffee aroma and background flavor

edit - 5 gallon finished batch size

 

[Immocles]

Bottled today. Really happy with the coffee flavor and aroma, so thanks for the tip @Dgallo . Didn’t get much vanilla through, but I went light on it and wasn’t expecting much. Maybe it’ll poke out some at a later date, but the whole bean coffee addition was definitely what I was looking for.

 

[WBB]

Any need to worry about sanitation with adding whole beans to fermenter? Or are coffee beans like hops in that they are antiseptic? You know what I mean.

 

[Dgallo]

Any need to worry about sanitation with adding whole beans to fermenter? Or are coffee beans like hops in that they are antiseptic? You know what I mean.

It does https://pubs.acs.org/doi/pdf/10.1021/jf00046a035

 

[Immocles]

Pretty happy with it! Could up the flakes or the oats a bit next time. I think 1oz of a whole bean in a bit over a gallon absolutely nailed it. It’s definitely come down a bit since bottling, though. Thanks again!

 

[Leezer]

I just wanted to chime in to say that I used the advice here and put 1oz whole coffee beans in a weighted hop sock into my 1G oatmeal stout for three days, and am very pleased with the results. Really nice coffee taste but not overwhelming. Thanks!

 

[balto charlie]

I just brewed 3 gallons of chocolate coffee stout yesterday. Plan to add coffee beans after fermentation, will update.
FWIW: I added 3 ozs 100% bakers Chocolate late boil. Taste delicious after brewing but it is a long ways from finished